A Collection of Quora Articles I’ve Bookmarked Since 2015
What was sanitation (sewage system, waste disposal, etc) like in settlements throughout the world and history? What would you consider to be some high and low points for sanitation, especially in bigger cities?
Answered by Pieter Buis on April 9th, 2020 Sewers could be a step backward in terms of sanitation The Dutch city of Leiden and the English city of London both experienced high and low points for the same reason but at different times. Lets call it a tale of two cities. Leiden Leiden is one…
What caused the mafias in the United States to decline in power?
Answered by Allen Lobo on Jan 16th, 2019 It is amazing today to think how until as recently as the early 1980s, there was complete denial of there even being any such thing as “The American Mafia”. No, not as a bunch of criminals (that part was plainly obvious), but as a formal hierarchical organization.…
Is there a completely abandoned village in the U.S.?
Answered by Franklin Veaux on Feb 11th, 2020 Many. Completely abandoned towns and villages dot the US. A lot of Europeans struggle with just how enormous the US is; if a town grows up around some resource, and then that resource dries up, the people in the town can simply pack up and walk away.…
Why did the Dutch always cling so hard to this artificial land that was supposed to naturally become a sea basin so long ago?
Answered by Pieter Buis on Mar 16th, 2020 This is what the Netherlands looked like during the middle-late Bronze Age. As you can see large parts are covered by Peat which means those areas were nigh uninhabitable. Neither cereal cultivation nor grazing of cattle is feasible on those grounds, wearing special shoes a man might…
How can you be a hero without having to fight?
Answered by Leila Thomas on Jan 20th, 2020 See this guy? This is Chen Si.[1] He works at a logistics agency in Nanjing, China. He also spends his free time saving other people’s lives. Let me tell you his story. In 2003, a very close relative of Chen’s committed suicide after watching his sons argue…
Why do historical artifacts so often contain detail and extravagance? Where are the red Solo plastic beer cups of the ancient world?
Answered by James Pearson on Nov 24th, 2018 A red Solo cup will last centuries in a landfill. Most ancient equivalents don’t hold up as well. In colonial America clay pipes were cheap and plentiful, the stems were long to keep the heat away from the lips. They were also somewhat fragile and frequently broke.…
What are the differences between the way American liberals and conservatives view the founding fathers?
Answered by Matthew Bates on Oct 16th, 2019 Contemporary American liberal thought is dominated by race, gender, religion, sexuality, and socio-economic class issues. Conservatives call this “identity politics,” but lately liberals have begun to push back against that label. Whatever you want to call it, it is the lens through which liberals see the world.…
What are the most common and effective propaganda techniques?
Answered by Dima Vorobiev on March 10th, 2019 Ripples. Or, as we in the 21st century call it, “meme propagation”. How it works In the USSR, enemies of Soviet rule excelled in the production of political jokes. The jokes traversed the country in a matter of weeks, even in the darkest era of Stalinist purges.…
Has a game developer ever accidentally deleted his/her entire game before releasing it?
Answered by Chris Nash on Nov 20th, 2019 I don’t know of a game developer who accidentally deleted his game before releasing it, but I know of a game developer who had his game irrevocably corrupted before he could finish it. Set the wayback machine for the mid-1980s, when home computers ruled the video game…
What are some of the best methods to prevent tax evasion?
Answered by Philip Naudus on Feb 5th, 2020 In 1951, the government of Taiwan instituted measures to curb tax evasion that proved so effective that the total amount of tax collected in 1951 was almost three times the amount collected in 1950. But before I explain how Taiwan did this, let’s talk a little about…
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